Magazine front cover (Draft 3)

With this draft I made the background black & white to make the main character pop and give the piece  an artsy touch. This is very unconventional because every magazine I have researched have very bright, eye catching colours to draw potential customers to the magazine.  But I think this effect is very good for creating a moody atmosphere and this is what my target audience likes. I have also added the price and the date of release, this is within black side bars on the top right hand side. I used white text on a black background so it showed clearly for everyone to see. 

Double page spread analyis (Teen spirit)

Double page spread analyis (Lady gaga)

Summary of the magazine I have made

Content of the magazine

Front Cover

With my front cover I went with a simplistic look over the very cluttered look that most mainstream magazine go for. In a survey done by "Up magazine" in 2009, 89% of people prefer a clean, simple magazine cover where they know what is inside rather than a rough, cluttered one with very basic information and not really telling them what they're buying. So with my front cover i had a simple headline to show the customers that it is a LAME magazine. Then with a big main image and strap line to describe who the image is of and what the image is about. Also describes what the article is about inside. This gives the customer a clear insight into what they're buying and are not deceived into buying it.

Main image

With my main image I wanted it to stand out on the shelf so I edited it in hope to achieve this. The final results was the background was in black and white with my main character in colour to make him pop and stand out. This black & white effect is used by professionals as a basic way to make current elements of a piece stand out.

In the example above you see mainstream magazine 'Rolling stone' use the black and white effect but in reverse to how I have used it in my project. The red title of the magazine draws the attention away from the it and onto the two man on the front. This forces the customer to look a bit harder at what the front cover is about and hopefully get a sale from this tactic.

Font

I got my fonts from dafont (http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=603) to use in my magazine. I used a style called script. Within that genre of font I used a font called 'Nirvana'. This font is used on the front cover right through the middle. 

For my title on the front cover I used a very bold font and colour (black) to make it easy to read and recognize. I also got this font from dafont ( http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=503 ) in the 'basic' sub genre of fonts. This font falls under the 'fixed width' sub sub genre and is called 'Jane'. I dont know why its called that but hey ho. It has basic features. Its bold, black and stand out on a shelf. I wanted this font to symbolize the magazine. Big, bold and in your face. 

House style 

The house style (colour scheme) of my magazine was a big deal for me. I wanted the magazine to stand out and go against mainstream magazines. This is a very risky move but in my opinion all the magazine on the shelf today look the same. Big and over the top, begging for attention and think its too much. I went for a simplistic design in hope that this fresh approach would bring the attention to LAME. In my research I found that Vice magazine goes for this approach and that company was the fastest grow media outlet in the world last year. Granted it isn't just a music magazine but with facts and figures like that, they're doing something right. So I adopted there style and added my own touch. ( Vice does have a music section in each magazine, so I count it as valid research into the music magazine industry).

Audience 

My target audience will be males and females in the age bracket of 16-25. This I think is the perfect age for the content that I hope to produce for this age group. I don't want to restrict or censor the content just to bring the age gap down because that isn't what I want this magazine to be like. The content will be tailored to what my target audience wants from a good magazine. For example, inside stories, new bands, info on gigs and tours, articles about things that the bands might want to be seen about. (A good example of this is when Nirvana were around, Kurt Cobain was a bit supporter of woman's rights and spoke about it very publicly). 

The magazine isn't purposely made for  a certain type of person, I want it to be that anyone in the world can pick it up and find at least one article interesting and worth the money they've spent on it, but if I had to pick it would be people hat are heavy into rock/grunge/alternative music. This can be anyone from the casual listener to the most hardcore fans that know everything about the genre. The aim is to make the customer feel the money they paid for it was worth while. 

Genre

My magazine will focus on the alternative music scene, past and present.

This a very brief selection of the bands and albums that will be discussed in this magazine.

Magazine Front cover final edit for marking.

In this final draft I have edited my front cover to hopefully have more impact on the reader. I have kept the main image of the man on the front cover in colour, to make him pop and stand out. The rest of the background is in black and white with also the two other images in the bottom left hand corner. The text, header and subheadings are in black and white. I wanted the white text (Subheading and main heading) to be in white so it contrastes against the background. I had the title in black because the customer will already know what the magazine is.